Palo Alto neighborhood · 24/7
Professorville locksmith work on 1890s to 1920s doors that still carry the plate, the knob and the keyhole they were hung with
The historic district south of downtown between Addison and Kingsley: shingled and Craftsman houses from the 1890s through the 1920s, deep porches, front doors with a glass light and a bronze mortise set, houses divided into two or three units, and rules about what may change on a street-facing door.
4.9 / 5· 176 reviews from Palo Alto, Stanford & the towns beside them
18 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Professorville is eighteen minutes from Midtown and is the reason the van carries a box of odd spindles and mortise springs. A front door here has a mortise case in its edge, a plate with a knob, a keyhole for a bit key and a thumb turn, and above it a rim latch that an earlier owner screwed on when the bit key stopped being trusted. The rim cylinder is what a pocket key opens, and it is rekeyed at $27 to $45. The mortise set is left alone. A knob that wobbles is a worn spindle and a set screw, replaced without lifting the plate; a latch that no longer springs back is a spring in the case, which comes out through the edge, is cleaned and goes back. Only a case split at the bolt is replaced, with a new case fitted behind the original plate at $125 to $329, and from the porch the door looks as it did in 1915.
Many of these houses are divided, with a shared porch door and unit doors at the top of a stair. Landlords rekey between tenants at $27 to $45 per cylinder, and the porch door is pinned so every tenant's key opens it and none opens a neighbor's unit. A lockout at a unit door is $129 to $219 and is picked, because a drilled hole in a 1905 slab cannot be undone. Proof of tenancy is asked for at the door. Houses on the historic inventory have rules about the street face, and a rekey changes nothing the street can see; a keypad on the front is not offered, and a smart lock, where one is wanted, goes on the kitchen door at $189 to $479.
The blocks are short, the trees are large and parking is what it is; the van stops where it can and the case goes up the porch steps. What is never done here is guessing at a door. Where a part from 1910 is no longer made, the technician says so with the plate off and names what can be done with what is there, at the figure already said on the call. Evening calls carry $55 between 8pm and midnight and $90 overnight inside that figure.
Say whether the front door still has its keyhole plate and whether a rim latch sits above the knob on the inside. If the house is divided, say which door is yours and whether the porch door is shared; that decides how the cylinders are pinned.
Nearby
The next district over, the same van and the same figures
FAQ
Asked about Professorville
Eighteen minutes from Midtown to a Professorville porch. Why not less?+
Embarcadero Road has to be crossed, and past it the blocks are short, the trees are large and a legal stop is not always in front of your house. Eighteen minutes counts the walk from wherever the van fits, with the case carried up the porch steps rather than rolled to the door.
The house is on the historic inventory. Will anything the street can see change?+
No. What is done happens inside the cylinder or inside the edge of the door, and the plate, the knob and the glass light stay exactly as they are. A keypad is not offered on a street-facing door in this district; where a household wants codes, they go on the kitchen door at the back.
The house is split into two units with a shared porch door. How are the cylinders pinned?+
The porch door takes both tenants' keys and each unit door takes only its own, so nobody walks into a neighbor's rooms with the key that let them in off the street. It is set up in one visit at $27 to $45 a cylinder, and the landlord gets the plan in writing with the receipt.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
One call, one figure, and the lock kept whole
Calls answered 24/7 across Palo Alto, Stanford and the towns beside them. The $89 service call, the labor and the parts are inside the figure said on the call, the lock is opened without drilling wherever it allows, and the receipt repeats the figure.